Overplay/Underplay of AA early? Bad Beat?

[digdeep]

Caught AA early in a single $5+1 tournament. Should I have gone all in from the start, or just called the initial raise?


Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t15 (10 handed)

UTG (t800)
UTG+1 (t800)
UTG+2 (t890)
MP1 (t800)
MP2 (t755)
MP3 (t785)
CO (t800)
Button (t785)
Hero (t785)
BB (t800)

Preflop: Hero is SB with A/images/graemlins/heart.gif, A/images/graemlins/spade.gif.
UTG calls t15, UTG+1 folds, UTG+2 calls t15, MP1 folds, <font color="CC3333">MP2 raises to t50</font>, MP3 calls t50, CO calls t50, Button calls t50, <font color="CC3333">Hero raises to t300</font>, BB folds, UTG folds, UTG+2 folds, <font color="CC3333">MP2 raises to t755 (All-In)</font>, MP3 folds, <font color="CC3333">CO raises to t800 (All-In)</font>, Button folds, Hero calls t485 (All-In).

Flop: (t2485) K/images/graemlins/spade.gif, Q/images/graemlins/club.gif, Q/images/graemlins/heart.gif <font color="blue">(3 players, 3 all-in)</font>

Turn: (t2485) 5/images/graemlins/spade.gif <font color="blue">(3 players, 3 all-in)</font>

River: (t2485) 8/images/graemlins/diamond.gif <font color="blue">(3 players, 3 all-in)</font>

Final Pot: t2485

[digdeep]

Results to be posted later: anyone guess what MP2 is holding?

[tubbyspencer]

I'd say MP2 is holding Qx.

But you obviously played this right; you got all in preflop against 2 folks w AA.

[River2Pair]

Exactly. A few months ago at the Bike, I was playing $100NL 2/3. I picked up aces EP. I limp along with 3 others, button makes a pot sized raise, and I minraise. He pushes, spikes a King to his KK.

I was going through this in my mind, trying to figure out if I would have played this differently, he might have folded. Until I finally realized, "Why in the world would I not want callers with aces?" And until I made this realization, I could not win at poker.

[digdeep]

Thanks for the replies. I thought afterwards, that maybe I should have just called to see a flop, but it sounds as if I played it well. MP2 was holding QQ. Won with quads!

[edge]

Getting all your money in with AA preflop is always the best strategy, unless you come up with some crazy satellite situation, which has been discussed ad nauseum.

In a standard tournament or a cash game, whenever you can get AA all-in preflop, you played the hand the best way you possibly could have.